162 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



also accompanied by a capital plate. Prof. Westwood's 

 "Entomological Notes" are (I) on the pupa of a trichopterous 

 insect {Anabulia nervosa), which swam about in water like a 

 Notonecla, \\\\\\ some remarks on its structure and habits; 

 (2) on the parasitism of certain lepidopterous insects, which 

 contains observations on a lepidopterous larva captured in 

 South India clinging to the abdomen of an Homopteron ; 

 Prof. Weslwood thought it an instance of true parasitism, 

 but Mr. Wood-Mason, the original owner of the specimens, 

 inclined to the opinion that the larva was the messmate, 

 rather than the parasite, of the Homopteron; (8) on the 

 lepidopterous genera //<///«///yyw/erw.s,Wesmael, and Thymara, 

 El. Doubleday. The former of these (the unique specimen of 

 which is in the Brussels Museum) was transferred by Dr. 

 Hagen to the Neuroptera ; it is here relegated to the 

 Lepidoptera, as an ally of ThyDiara, in which class it was 

 originally described by Wesmael. 



The four memoirs which may be looked upon as of more 

 general, if of less scientific, interest, are Mr. Distant's paper 

 on "The Geographical Distribution of Daiiais Archippus ;'''' 

 Mr. J. W. Slater's two papers on " The Food of Gaily-culoured 

 Caterpillars," and his "Vivarium Notes on some common 

 Coleopter/i;" together with another of Mr. Mansel Weale's 

 highly interesting papers on " The variation of Rhopalocerous 

 forms in South Africa." This latter paper is thus summarised 

 in the Proceedings : — 



" The author, after stating that he had travelled over ;most of the 

 eastern districts of the Cape Colony, alluded to the distribution of 

 plants as affecting that of insects, and notined the apparent encroach- 

 ments of the subtropical flora and insect iauna along the south-eastern 

 seaboard, the absence of any great barriers, and the general uniformity 

 tending to produce close variations. He exhibited and remarked ou 

 a large series of Papilio merope, male and female, some reared by 

 him, and all collected in one small wooded gully, isolated in an open 

 grass countr}'. He also exLibited male and female Nymphales xiphares 

 {Thyestes\, the male of which is wanting in the National Collection, 

 remarking on the apparent imitation by the female of Amauris 

 echeria. He next exhibited and remarked on a series of imagines of 

 Acraa esetria, some of the forms of which are separated by some 

 entomologists, and stated that all the forms had been reared from 

 larvae collected on a single plant. He next exhibited a series of 

 Junonia pelusgis and J. archesia, showing a very close gradation 

 linking the two forms, and showed that some of the latter approached 

 ./. amestris, although the alliance was not so evident as in J. pelusgis. 

 He objected to the use of the name "species "as too freely used 

 among plants and insects, and suggested that it merely implied a 



